Leap Wireless (Cricket) exploring strategic options

DealReporter.com has recently posted an article saying that Leap Wireless (Cricket) is talking with investment banks to explore strategic options. The site, which BTW is owned by The Financial Times Group, quoted a person familiar with the matter, saying the process of merging Leap or any other operators was still in its early stages and could last through the first two quarters of 2010.

Unsurprisingly Leap’s spokesman Gregory Lund declined to comment.

Analysts believe that as the industry consolidates, someone will either acquire Leap or the company will merge with some of its competitors. Among the carriers that could be interested to acquire Leap are America Movil, Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile) and AT&T.

For the record, MetroPCS has already expressed interest to merge with Leap in 2007, when it made a $5.5 billion offer at an exchange ratio of 2.75 MetroPCS shares for each Leap share. At that point, Leap rebuffed the offer…